Game



' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

FLOYD R. HARKINSON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

GAME.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FLOYD R. HAimrNsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Games, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved game which, when made in a relatively large size, is adaptable to the demands of the public for being played in such places as amusement parks, seaside resorts, and the like; while when embodied in a smaller form, the game is equally adaptable to the demands of a parlor-game, such as can be manipulated upon an ordinary parlor, dining-room, or. library-table, and which, when not in use, will occupy a minimum amount of space within ones residence.

Another object is to provide a game which embodies a plurality of balls or spheres, which are singly projected from one end portion of the game-board'toward walls or ,other obstructions at the other end portion of the board, with the obj ectbf causing each of the balls in turn to rebound from the first obstruction encountered and thence enter directly, or after rebounding from a second obstruction, one of the several holes which are provided in the game-board, and which are positioned behind a wall or other substantially transversely extending obstruci Il, which/prevents the ball from beingrolled directly into any of the said holes from the forward portion of the board.

-A further object is to provide means for gathering and temporarily retaining the balls as they have been used in playing the game and after they have passed through the holes in the game-board, and also of classifying said balls with regard to the particular holesthrough which they may have passed, in combination with means for releasing all of said balls-thus caught and classified simultaneously in order to use them over again by the next succeeding player. 7

These and further objects of the invention are fully brought out in'the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of the preferred embodiment of the improved game; r ig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line 3 -3 of Fig. 2; andFig. 4 is an Specification of Letters Patent. Patented M31. 30, 1920. I

Application filed June 18, I

1919. .Seria1No.3 05,0i1. v

enlarged detail view of the oscillatory'ball retaining means.- J

Referring to'thedrawings, a proper .is shown as comprising a rearwardly and a forwardly positioned similar section 2, separated by a transversely ejxtending sheet of glass 3, sai glass and firstrmentioned'sec- 'tions" of the game-board'being in a single absolutely level plane.-

game-board I positione'd horizontally extending section 1, a

Beneath the game-board proper is a chainsection 2, and spaced from said section a sufficient distance to. permit a ball 5 to pass between said section and the slanting bottom wall, after having dropped through one'of the series of holes 6 in the said section 2.

' The compartment above the slanting walk 1 is closed at the forwardend by an upwardly extending wall 7, positioned at a distance from the forward extremity of the game-board section 1 sufficient to permit ones hand to enter the opening 7 thus provided to extract from the. said chamber the balls which have been played andvwhich have returned to-the forwardportion of the device as hereinafter described. The said undercompartment is further inclosed' laterally by means of oppositely positioned, upwardly extending, walls Sand 9, and at its rearmost point is closed by a similar wall 10. i

In order to prevent balls when being rolled toward the rear end of the device from escaping under ordinary circumstances beyond the limits of the game-board, an upwardly extending wall 11 is made to inclose the rear and lateral opposite side'port'ro ns of substantially all of the rear section 2 of the game-board, and. the inner, vertical surface of this superimposed wall 11 is preferably provided with a strip of rubber, or

other resilient material 12, polygonal in cross-section, and presenting a yielding edge laterally nwardly toward the central portion of the game-board, exactly as in the construction presented by the well-known billiard and pool tables.

The baflie-wall 13 is positioned upon, and

secured permanentlyto, the upper surface of the game-board section 2, and extends angularly from a portion ofthe wall 11,

. ward continuation of the compartment-inclosing wall 9, said baflie-wall 13 being--pro-,

'vided upon its inner free end and laterally oppositely positioned surfaces with a continuation of the resilient material 12.

The n per surface of the inclosed wall 4 is provided with ridges 14, which extend parallel with each other from the real-most portion of said last-named wall to points beneath the forward edge portion of the game section 3 of the game-board, said ridges being so positioned as to direct each ball, falling through one of the openings 6 marked 10, to a position beneath the glass member 3, also marked 10; likewise, to con ey balls, falling through an aperture marked 25, to a position marked 25 beneath the said glass 3; and so on, conveying balls from beneath any given one or set of apertures beneath correspondingly valued positions under the said glass member 3r I Extending between the walls 8 and 9, and journaled therein substantially central with respect to the said transparent section of the game-board, is a rod having alined portions 15, for pivotally mounting the same'through the respective supporting walls, said rod sections being connected by means of airintegral section 16 to said rod extending par.- allel with the axis of the portions 15, and connected to the latter at its ends by radially extending portions 17, and the outer extremityv of one of the portions 15 terminating in a radially extending crank section 18 provided with a handle 19. The normal position of this member is such that it extends transversely above the slanting wall 4 within the lower compartment of the device, and lies normally in the direct paths I ball's' allottedto him.

of any and all balls which, having passed through the holes 6, have rolled forwardly by virtue of the slant of-the wall 4, said balls having beencollected and classified as hereinbefore described and retained beneath the glass member 3, can be counted up with regard to their numerical values, determined by the holes through which they enter the under compartment of the device, immediately after a player has played all of the After the. score has thus been completed and recorded, a partial rotation of the handle 19 will raise the horizontally extending rod 16 sufiicient to release all of the balls temporarily held thereby,

'whence they continue their course downwardly and forwardly upon the slanting wall 4, until they are stopped by the forward wall 7 below the opening 7 in front of the forward section 1. of the game-board.

With the construction thus described, a

' player shoots. rolls, or otherwise propels,

a ball manually from a position upon the section 1 of the game-board toward the open e-wall 13 and the neighboring portion of the wall 11. He endeavors to direct the ball at such an angle and with such velocity as will cause it to rebound from the cushion 12 either directly toward the hole 25 or indirectly thereto, after having caromed against one or more of the other sections of the cushion 12. Obviously, if his shot is misdirected and does not enter the aperture 20, it will strike the forwardly directed cushion upon the bafiie-wall 13 and rebound back to him, so that a second and further attempt will be made to place the ball through the aperture 20. If one or more of the balls have entered the rear portion of the board and failed to pass through one of the apertures 6, it or they are in position to be further acted upon by means of another subsequently rolled into this portion of the board, the action of the last-mentioned ball upon the first being similar to the tactics used in billiards and poo v In the construction of this device, it is to be noted that, instead of a relatively hard ball being used in conjunction with the rubher or other resilient cushion 12, a resilient ball made of rubber or similar material may be employed against the relatively unyielding inner surfaces of the walls 11. Likewise, a domestic form of the game will be made by extending bands, or other forms of sition of the holes 6 is not essential, those shown in the drawing being merely representative of what can be done in the design of the game otherwie including all of the principal features of the. device herein described and claimed. However, it will immediately become obvious that for each value given to one or. more of the holes, there must be provided acorresponding trough or track along which balls, passing through the holes of each respective value, can progress forwardly toward correspondingly valued positions beneath the trans parent member 3. Thus, when considering the manner in which this game is played, the

details entering into its construction, etc., it will be realized that the most important and desirable features have been made to simulate those which have made the so-called Japanese-ball, billiards pool, shuflle- I board, etc., so popular.

Having thus described my invention. what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Pat entof the United States is 1. A game, comprising a substantially level board, a plurality of apertures in the rear portion of said board, a forwardly operative to direct said ball to a forward.

portion of the under wall corresponding with the aperture through which it entered thereupon, and transparent means set into the said board, through which said ball and its position can be seen by the player from .above, to determine through which aperture it passed.

2. A game, comprising a board, a fixed slanting bottom wall spaced beneath said board, apertures in said board through which a ball can pass to said slanting wall, and movable means extending transversely of said latter wall to temporarily retain a ball in a predetermined position. 3. A game, comprising a board, a fixed slanting bottom wall spaced beneath said board, apertures in said board through which a ball can pass to said slanting Wall, manually movable means extending-transversely of said latter wall to temporarily retain a ball in a predetermined position, and means to operate said last-named means to release the ball after its position has been noted 4. A game, comprising a board, a slanting bottom wall spaced beneath said board,

apertures in said board through which a ball can pass to said slanting wall, means extending transversely of said latter wall to temporarily retain a ball in a predetermined positlon, transparent means in the said board through which the position of a ball therebelow can be noted, and means to operate said retaining means to release said ball.

5. A game,.comp-rising a board, a slanting bottom wall spaced beneath said board, apertures in said board through which a ball can pass to said slanting wall, means extending transversely of said latter wall and above the same to temporarily retain a ball in a predetermined position, a transparent section inserted in said board substantially above said retaining means, and means extending laterally beyond said bottom wall and operative to actuate said retaining means to release the ball.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature FLOYD R. HARKINSON. 

